Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / A Non-Stop Day of Miracles Msg 620 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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A Non-Stop Day of Miracles Msg 620 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: How easy for us to pick up our bible on
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Speaker 1: the way out the door and tuck it under our
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Speaker 1: arms and come to the place of worship or to
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Speaker 1: our adult fellowship, and then open it and take all
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Speaker 1: of it for granted, and rarely to pause and realize
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Speaker 1: that this is special revelation, guided and guarded by the
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Speaker 1: spirit of God, When over a period of fifteen hundred years,
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Speaker 1: the Lord revealed his truth to those who would write
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Speaker 1: it and receive it and record it. Is a good
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Speaker 1: way to put it. Revelation is God giving us his word.
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Speaker 1: And that's both in general revelation and the nature of
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Speaker 1: the world around us, the stars above us, the seas
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Speaker 1: that go deep below us. In general revelation, the heavens
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Speaker 1: declare the glory of God. And in special revelation, there
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Speaker 1: were those who received and recorded his word, and did
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Speaker 1: so in the original manuscript without error. Think of it.
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Speaker 1: We speak of people being inspired today, but not like that.
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Speaker 1: We speak of revelation today, but not like the original
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Speaker 1: Revelation has ceased. Inspiration has ceased, but illumination goes on
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Speaker 1: and on. As you leave today, having been instructed in
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Speaker 1: some part of the scriptures, you will have been illumined,
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Speaker 1: where the spirit of God took truth print from the
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Speaker 1: page and made you away of what it is saying,
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Speaker 1: what it is meaning, and how it applies to your life.
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Speaker 1: How good of God to provide for us a guideline
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Speaker 1: for life that never need be called into question, written
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Speaker 1: for our correction, admonition that we, through patience and comfort
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Speaker 1: from the scriptures, would find hope, the one element that
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Speaker 1: is so missing all around us, the hope that He gives. Now,
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Speaker 1: with that in mind, turn please to Matthew chapter nine.
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Speaker 1: We're working our way through Matthew's Gospel. We've come to
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Speaker 1: chapter nine. I'll be reading from a version that you
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Speaker 1: may not have in your hands. This is from the
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Speaker 1: New Living Translation. You may you may have the New
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Speaker 1: International Version. You may have the New American Standard Version.
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Speaker 1: You may use the New English Bible, or the Net Bible.
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Speaker 1: There are a number of versions available, and this one
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Speaker 1: helps people who are not familiar with the scriptures to
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Speaker 1: understand it a little more easily. My desire in communicating
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Speaker 1: is to accurately present the Scriptures in a clear and
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Speaker 1: unmistakable manner, free of code talk, free of inside nomenclature,
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Speaker 1: so that anybody can understand it, and we can all
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Speaker 1: see its significance and value in our lives. We're looking
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Speaker 1: at a rather long section of scriptures, so allow me
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Speaker 1: to read excerpts from it, Verses fourteen through thirty four.
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Speaker 1: Once you find Matthew nine, please stand with one another,
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Speaker 1: for the reading of God's word begins. One day, the
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Speaker 1: disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him,
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Speaker 1: why don't your disciples fast like we do and the
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Speaker 1: Pharisees do. Jesus replied, the wedding guests mourn when celebrating
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Speaker 1: with the groom verse sixteen. Besides, who would patch old
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Speaker 1: clothing with new cloth verse seventeen. And no one puts
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Speaker 1: new wine into old wine skins verse eighteen. As Jesus
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Speaker 1: was saying this, the leader of a synagogue came and
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Speaker 1: knelt before him. My daughter has just died, he said,
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Speaker 1: But you can bring her back to life again if
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Speaker 1: you just come and lay your hand on her. So
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Speaker 1: Jesus and his disciples got up and went with him.
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Speaker 1: Just then, a woman who had suffered for years with
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Speaker 1: constant bleeding, came up behind him. She touched the fringe
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Speaker 1: of his robe, for she thought if I can just
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Speaker 1: touch his robe, I will be healed into verse twenty two,
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Speaker 1: and the woman was healed at that moment. When Jesus
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Speaker 1: arrived at the official's home, he saw the noisy crowd
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Speaker 1: and heard the funeral music get out. He told them
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Speaker 1: the girl isn't dead, She's only asleep verse twenty five.
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Speaker 1: After the crowd was put outside, Jesus went in and
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Speaker 1: took the girl by the hand, and she stood up.
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Speaker 1: Twenty seven. After Jesus left the girl's home, two blind
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Speaker 1: men followed along behind him, shouting, son of David, have
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Speaker 1: mercy on us. They went right into the house where
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Speaker 1: he was staying, and Jesus asked them, do you believe
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Speaker 1: I can make you see? Yes, Lord, they told him
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Speaker 1: we do. Then he touched their eyes and said, because
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Speaker 1: of your faith, it will happen. Then their eyes were
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Speaker 1: opened and they could see thirty two. When they left,
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Speaker 1: a demon possessed a man who couldn't speak, was brought
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Speaker 1: to Jesus. So Jesus cast out the demon, and then
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Speaker 1: the man began to speak finally verse thirty four. But
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Speaker 1: the Pharisees said he can cast out demons because he
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Speaker 1: is empowered by the prince of demons. Isn't it interesting?
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Speaker 1: If I may add here, the Pharisees never got it right. Never,
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Speaker 1: they were unable to deny the miracles or ignore the
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Speaker 1: power that he had to bring about the miracles. So
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Speaker 1: they were forced to deal with the source of the miracles.
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Speaker 1: And they even got that wrong. They said, he works
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Speaker 1: in the realm of the dark powers. He is, in fact,
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Speaker 1: one of Satan's own. My hope today is that we
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Speaker 1: will see the truth and come to terms with it,
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Speaker 1: and apply it in a way that changes our whole perspective.
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Speaker 1: You may be seated in the great song the choir
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Speaker 1: sang earlier, or the words, then I shall bow in
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Speaker 1: humble adoration, and there proclaim how great you are. When
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Speaker 1: we bow in humble adoration. Guard yourself, if you are
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Speaker 1: in the habit of attending church, our church services, guard
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Speaker 1: yourself from falling in the trap of the ultra familiar,
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Speaker 1: so that whether it is the reading of scripture or
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Speaker 1: the preaching of God's word, or giving or praying, that
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Speaker 1: you don't just go through the habit of that, but
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Speaker 1: that it becomes, as in this case, a statement of
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Speaker 1: humble adoration. As we pray abow with me, will you,
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Speaker 1: and remember we bow before the King overall who call
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Speaker 1: themselves King, and Lord above all who call themselves Lord.
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Speaker 1: We bow in humble adoration before you, our awesome, almighty,
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Speaker 1: victorious God. We come having lived our lives this past
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Speaker 1: week engaged in the world about us, a world of competition,
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Speaker 1: a world of secular thinking, a world where the culture
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Speaker 1: is designed to undermine and disregard you and your truth.
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Speaker 1: I pray, Father, as a result of our time with you,
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Speaker 1: that we will gain a perspective on truth, that we
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Speaker 1: will see how it is able to set us free
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Speaker 1: from the things that have bound us, Free from traditionalism,
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Speaker 1: free from the drives of the flesh and the lust
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Speaker 1: of the eyes, and the ever present pride of life.
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Speaker 1: And may we, as we bow in humble adoration, realize
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Speaker 1: you are the potter, we are the clay, You are
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Speaker 1: the Lord. We are the servants. You are our God,
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Speaker 1: and we are those who follow you. Trust you, lean
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Speaker 1: heart on you. Help us, our Father, today, to get
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Speaker 1: rid of those things that have plagued us in our
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Speaker 1: long list of worries. May they be dethroned from our
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Speaker 1: lives as you are enthroned, and anew, may we in
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Speaker 1: humble adoration. Acknowledge those words of Wesley, And can it
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Speaker 1: be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's
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Speaker 1: blood died he for me, who caused his pain for
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Speaker 1: me to him to death pursued amazing love. How can
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Speaker 1: it be that Thou, my God, hast died for me?
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Speaker 1: And humble adoration, Our Father, we pray and we give
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Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus, the greatest of all names,
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Speaker 1: the name before whom every knee will one day bow
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Speaker 1: and every tongue will one day confess that he is God.
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Speaker 1: And it will all be done to the glory of
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Speaker 1: your name, O Father. Through Christ we pray, and because
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Speaker 1: of Christ we give. And everyone said Amen. We are
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Speaker 1: moving through the story that Matthew has recorded, and we
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Speaker 1: have come to one day in the life of Jesus
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Speaker 1: that is sort of non stop, one event after another,
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Speaker 1: one conversation after another, especially one miracle after another. How
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Speaker 1: easy it is for us to read these things and
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Speaker 1: not see how significant those events were because they appear
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Speaker 1: back to back. As he is presenting himself as Messiah,
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Speaker 1: showing the authority of the Lord God. As was prophesied
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Speaker 1: by the ancient prophets, he would come he would set
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Speaker 1: prisoners free, he would heal those who were sick, he
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Speaker 1: would give sight to the blind, and raise those who
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Speaker 1: had died. All of this in proof of his being Messiah.
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Speaker 1: It all begins in the version I'm reading in words like,
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Speaker 1: one day the disciples of John the Baptist came to
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Speaker 1: Jesus and ask him, why don't your disciples fast like
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Speaker 1: we do and the Pharisees do. That's found in Matthew nine,
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Speaker 1: verse fourteen. It's a question about fasting, but in reality
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Speaker 1: it's a question of comparison. You and your disciples fast
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Speaker 1: at these times and in this way. We have been
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Speaker 1: taught by those above us around us to fast this way,
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Speaker 1: and you don't do it the way we do it. Now,
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Speaker 1: hang on to this because I'll come back to it.
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Speaker 1: Their words were based on traditionalism, not tradition. Is a difference.
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Speaker 1: Yaroslav Pelican of Yale put it better than I've ever
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Speaker 1: read from anyone else. Tradition is the living faith of
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Speaker 1: those now dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of those
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Speaker 1: still living. Don't miss that Tradition is the living faith
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Speaker 1: of those now dead. Paul Peter, John Jude, and the
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Speaker 1: other prophets that we could name that lived in the
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Speaker 1: ancient days. Tradition is the living faith of those now dead.
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Speaker 1: Traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living. It
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Speaker 1: is easy, in the process of gaining a knowledge of
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Speaker 1: religion that we missed the message of Christ. Christ came
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Speaker 1: with a new, fresh message, a message that brought hope
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Speaker 1: and renewal and change, in fact, transformation. But the traditionalism
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Speaker 1: crowd Pharisees at all, were embracing what they had been
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Speaker 1: doing based on their longstanding rules and regulations. Not just
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Speaker 1: ten commandments, but they had put together over six hundred
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Speaker 1: of them, all the way down to the most incredible,
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Speaker 1: new and needless details of life. And so they come
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Speaker 1: to fasting and they're saying, you and your disciples don't
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Speaker 1: fast like like we do. Now, why don't you fast
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Speaker 1: like we do? Look at Jesus' reply. The wedding guests
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Speaker 1: mourn when celebrating with the groom, of course, not I
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Speaker 1: mean you and I go to a wedding, there's joy,
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Speaker 1: there's a laughter. I mean a man even kisses a
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Speaker 1: woman right in front of the public, right there. They've
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Speaker 1: taken their vows. When it's over, their celebration off and
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Speaker 1: dancing and offen, a meal is served and everybody's all
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Speaker 1: excited about it, and pictures are taken. I mean, that's
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Speaker 1: no time to mourn, that's the time to celebrate. So
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Speaker 1: Jesus draws on that analogy when he says to them,
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Speaker 1: of course not, but someday the groom will be taken
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Speaker 1: away from them, and then they will fast. There's a
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Speaker 1: lot in that I'll not get into. But weddings in
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Speaker 1: those days are different than our day, and he had
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Speaker 1: that in mind. He says, besides, who would patch old
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Speaker 1: clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink
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Speaker 1: and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even
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Speaker 1: bigger tear than before. And while he's dealing with analogies,
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Speaker 1: no one puts new wine into old wine skins. In
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Speaker 1: ancient days, wine was not bottled, but was held in skins,
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Speaker 1: often in an entire organ from an animal that had
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Speaker 1: been made supple soft. And when there was new wine
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Speaker 1: put in, it needed to leave room for that wine
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Speaker 1: to expand, as the gas would increase while it was fermenting. Now,
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Speaker 1: you don't put new wine in old wine skins, or
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Speaker 1: you'll split the old skins. And he said, new wine
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Speaker 1: is stored in new wine skins, so that both are preserved.
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Speaker 1: It is a beautiful thing. And by the way, before
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Speaker 1: I go any further, there's application. Let me warn you
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Speaker 1: about expecting everybody else to do all the things you
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Speaker 1: do in the details of your Christian life. Be careful
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Speaker 1: about style. We have a certain style of worship that
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Speaker 1: we're comfortable with here at Stonebrier. Now nobody died and
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Speaker 1: left Stonebrier Community Church in charge of all other churches,
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Speaker 1: so that every church must worship exactly as we worship. Now.
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Speaker 1: We certainly are to believe in the scriptures, and we
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Speaker 1: certainly are to teach the truths of the Word of God,
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Speaker 1: and we certainly are to live out the Christian life.
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Speaker 1: But there are there's a lot of room for flexibility.
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Speaker 1: So don't write somebody off because they worship in a
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Speaker 1: different way or manner than you do, or you fall
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Speaker 1: into the trap of comparison, and you'll you'll find yourself
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Speaker 1: continually unhappy until you're just around those people who do
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Speaker 1: it just like you do it. I thought about this,
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Speaker 1: and I read the words of that great theologian Gilda
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Speaker 1: Radner from Saturday Night Live known as Rosanna Dana. Don't
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Speaker 1: act like you didn't watch her, because you did. She's
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Speaker 1: gone now, but she wrote this. When I was little,
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Speaker 1: my nurse Dibby's cousin had a dog, just a mut
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Speaker 1: and the dog was pregnant. I don't know how long
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Speaker 1: dogs are pregnant, but she was due to have her
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Speaker 1: puppies in about a week. She was out in the
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Speaker 1: yard one day and got in the way of the
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Speaker 1: lawnmower and her two hind legs got cut off. They
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Speaker 1: rushed her to the vet. He said, I can sew
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Speaker 1: her up, or you can put her to sleep if
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Speaker 1: you want, but the puppies are okay, she'll be able
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Speaker 1: to deliver those puppies. Dibby's cousin said, well, keep her alive.
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Speaker 1: So the vets sewed up her backside, and over the
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Speaker 1: next week the dog learned to walk. Now she didn't
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Speaker 1: spend any time worrying. She just learned to walk by
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Speaker 1: taking two steps in front, then flipping up her backside,
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Speaker 1: and then she'd take two steps in front and should
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Speaker 1: flip up her backside. She gave birth to six little puppies,
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Speaker 1: all in perfect health. She nurses them and then weaned them,
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Speaker 1: and when they learned to walk, they all walk just
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Speaker 1: like her. Two steps up, flipping your backside, two steps
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Speaker 1: flipping your backside. You got the point. They walked just
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Speaker 1: like she walked. Heard a cute story about a newlyweds
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Speaker 1: hadn't been married very long, and the bride decides she
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Speaker 1: would fix a fix a hand, and so she got
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Speaker 1: the ham. Then she cut off this end, and she
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Speaker 1: cut off that end and put the ham in and
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Speaker 1: get to cook it. And her husband's there and he's
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Speaker 1: watching a little bit of his money going down the drain.
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Speaker 1: He's thinking, how come you cut off the ends of
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Speaker 1: the ham? She said, my mother always always cut off
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Speaker 1: the ends of the ham which she cooked it. So
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Speaker 1: one day he was with his mother in law and
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Speaker 1: he said, by the way, my wife always cuts off
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Speaker 1: the end of the hand when she fixes it. Why
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Speaker 1: did you always do that? She said, well, I had
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Speaker 1: a short pan, so it wouldn't fit in the pan.
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Speaker 1: I had to cut the ends off like that. Silly
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Speaker 1: little illustration, but it's an example of how we cling
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Speaker 1: to things that we think are the truth when in
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Speaker 1: fact they're off. In traditionalism, it's not based on what
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Speaker 1: scripture teaches. The Lord gives us a lot of flexibility
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Speaker 1: I've said for years, he's a lot easier to live
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Speaker 1: with than most Christians. God gives you liberty, God frees
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Speaker 1: you in grace. So how about doing the same for others.
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Speaker 1: Stop comparing who fast when or how. It's the same
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Speaker 1: message Jesus says for them and a number of others.
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Speaker 1: I'm sure if we had the time to get into them. Now,
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Speaker 1: please observe how quickly something else happened. My version, Verse
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Speaker 1: eighteen begins as Jesus was saying this. So right after
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Speaker 1: he has finished explaining this to the disciples of the
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Speaker 1: Baptizer alone, comes a leader of the synagogue. We know
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Speaker 1: from the other books, Mark and Luke that the man's
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Speaker 1: name is Jyrus. He's not the rabbi of the synagogue.
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Speaker 1: He's an officer in the synagogue. And he came and
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Speaker 1: knelt before Jesus. Now look at this, right out of
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Speaker 1: the blue. My daughter has just died, he said, but
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Speaker 1: you can bring her back to life again. And if
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Speaker 1: you just come and lay your hand on her. Listen
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Speaker 1: to that. This is a Jewish officer from a Jewish synagogue.
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Speaker 1: He did not represent the majority opinion among the Jews
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Speaker 1: in that day or this one, but he's been listening,
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Speaker 1: and he's got a sick daughter we know from the
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Speaker 1: other books Mark and Luke. In fact, it's his only daughter.
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Speaker 1: She's twelve years old, and his heart has been knitted
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Speaker 1: to hers, like father with daughters often are. And she's died,
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Speaker 1: and he's seen enough, and he's hurt enough to know.
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Speaker 1: This one represents a power that no one else I
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Speaker 1: know has. He can do what no one else can do.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to go to him. Can you imagine the
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Speaker 1: shock of the Pharisees and fellow Jews when they saw
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Speaker 1: this officer from the synagogue showing up up and bringing
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Speaker 1: his case before Jesus and pleading for the life of
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Speaker 1: his daughter. She's dead, but you could bring her to
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Speaker 1: life if you just come and lay your hand on her.
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Speaker 1: What faith is that? Now? This isn't a what I
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Speaker 1: call a sandwich miracle, because there's a need presented, but
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Speaker 1: before the need is met, another need appears. Then later
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Speaker 1: the need of that first need is met. So look
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Speaker 1: in the middle of the sandwich, he's on his way
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Speaker 1: to Gyrus home to raise the daughter from dead from death,
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Speaker 1: and out of the blue we read verse twenty. Just
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Speaker 1: then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with
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Speaker 1: constant bleeding. Came up behind him. Don't go any further.
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Speaker 1: Learn to do this. When you read your Bible, live
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Speaker 1: it in your mind. Twelve years, this woman has lived
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Speaker 1: with the constancy of hemorrhaging. She has no intimacy in
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Speaker 1: her marriage. If her marriage even stayed together, she's viewed
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Speaker 1: as unclean by people who viewed the woman as unclean
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Speaker 1: at her time of the month. She's lived with this
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Speaker 1: for twelve years. She is desperate. In fact, one of
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Speaker 1: the writers, I think it's Mark, says that she had
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Speaker 1: been to several physicians and had spent all of her
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Speaker 1: money and had only gotten worse. This is a desperate woman,
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Speaker 1: heartbreaking situation. When you read your Bible, let the truth
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Speaker 1: of the setting land hard in your imagination. Now you've
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Speaker 1: got a feeling for the woman you didn't have earlier.
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Speaker 1: Quite likely, and the woman comes and touches the fringe
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Speaker 1: of his robe, for she thought verse twenty one, if
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Speaker 1: I could just touch his robe, I'll be healed. Twelve years,
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Speaker 1: no physician could help her. In fact, she only got worse.
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Speaker 1: But she knows there's something different. Just as the officer
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Speaker 1: from the synagogue knew there's something different about this one,
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Speaker 1: this man, this remarkable individual we call Jesus. If I
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Speaker 1: could just touch his robe, I'll be healed. Jesus turned
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Speaker 1: around and when he saw her, look at the response.
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Speaker 1: This beautiful. She didn't interrupt him, she didn't offend him,
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Speaker 1: she didn't cause a delay. I'm sure Gyrus is very
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Speaker 1: uneasy that he would take time for someone else with
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Speaker 1: this urgent, acute need at home. He says, daughter, be encouraged.
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Speaker 1: Your faith has made you well, and the woman was
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Speaker 1: healed at that moment. Mark it down, almost without exception.
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Speaker 1: When there is a divine healing, truly, a healing is
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Speaker 1: an instant. Be careful what you call miracles, Okay, be
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Speaker 1: real careful. Don't throw the word around lightly or frequently.
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Speaker 1: Have a friend who says, if they happened all the time,
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Speaker 1: they'd be called regulars. They're miracles. Finding a parking place
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Speaker 1: at Nordstrom's during Christmas is not a miracle. I could
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Speaker 1: name a half dozen other silly examples that we say,
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Speaker 1: Oh that man, a miracle took place today. I get
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Speaker 1: a miracle today. You know you don't. You're just living disillusion.
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Speaker 1: You're jumping to a false conclusion. Miracles are very very
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Speaker 1: very very rare, and I shock you. In my entire
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Speaker 1: fifty plus years of ministry, I maybe have been aware
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Speaker 1: of five, perhaps six true miracles where God broke into
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Speaker 1: the realm of reality and broke all the rules and
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Speaker 1: did the impossible. A couple of them were healing miracles
28:54
Speaker 1: that took place, not because there was a healer. You
28:57
Speaker 1: aren't divine healers. Today, there's one healer who does healing
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Speaker 1: on occasion, rare though it may be that he alone
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Speaker 1: does without any fanfare, without any cost, without trying to
29:14
Speaker 1: call attention to the large number of people, He simply said,
29:22
Speaker 1: your faith has made you will, and the flow of
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Speaker 1: blood stopped. Imagine that she'll never be the same. She
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Speaker 1: would tell that story the rest of her life. First
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Speaker 1: her family, and then she would tell her friends and
29:44
Speaker 1: then others because of this one who took time to
29:52
Speaker 1: speak a word to her. When Jesus arrived at the
29:59
Speaker 1: official's home, saw the noisy crowd, and he heard the
30:02
Speaker 1: funeral music, you might wonder what's that all about. In
30:05
Speaker 1: those days, there were hired mourners. Families would hire a
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Speaker 1: group of people to come with their songs, their dirshes
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Speaker 1: and their words and their prayers, if you will, and
30:21
Speaker 1: they would carry out the responsibility of their being hired.
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Speaker 1: So he says to them, get out, get out. The
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Speaker 1: girl isn't dead, she's only asleep. But the crowd laughed
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Speaker 1: at him. I'm not going to go any further before
30:43
Speaker 1: I ask you the direct question. Would you have laughed?
30:49
Speaker 1: Girls dead? She's dead? And he says no, no, no, no, no,
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Speaker 1: I'm here to tell you she's merely asleep. After the
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Speaker 1: crowd was put outside, they with their laughter, can imagine
31:12
Speaker 1: what they must have joked about when they were outside.
31:15
Speaker 1: Were they in for a shock. However, he went in
31:19
Speaker 1: and took the girl by hand. She stood up. Tellitha
31:24
Speaker 1: koomb the word used over in I think it's Mark's gospel.
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Speaker 1: She stood up. She's a twelve year old girl, and
31:39
Speaker 1: she's now resuscitated, brought back to life. If I read
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Speaker 1: no further, We've got enough to go on for half
31:47
Speaker 1: a lifetime. Look at that power. Don't ever, ever, ever
31:53
Speaker 1: doubt God's power. In his time and in his way
32:00
Speaker 1: and for his purpose. He demonstrates it rarely when we expected,
32:08
Speaker 1: and usually in ways we would have never imagined. In fact,
32:17
Speaker 1: one of the other writers says, he says, give her
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Speaker 1: something you eat. I smile when I read that. She's
32:23
Speaker 1: almost a teenager, so she's hungry, even when she's just
32:27
Speaker 1: getting from death to life. She's healthy, she's whole, and
32:39
Speaker 1: the report of the miracle swept through the entire countryside.
32:44
Speaker 1: Of course, if the girl next door to you had
32:48
Speaker 1: died and she was raised from death, don't you think
32:50
Speaker 1: it would read through the neighborhood. You couldn't wait to
32:53
Speaker 1: tell everyone you know, a miracle happened next door. He
33:00
Speaker 1: doesn't promote it. They do. After this, he leaves the
33:05
Speaker 1: girls home and there are two blind men following along.
33:09
Speaker 1: Now you would think by now it would be good
33:11
Speaker 1: for him to have a rest. I mean, he's been
33:13
Speaker 1: hard at it. He's been dealing with those Pharisees and
33:17
Speaker 1: those disciples of John who want this whole comparison issue
33:21
Speaker 1: dealt with. He's raised the girl from death, he has
33:26
Speaker 1: healed the woman with the issue of blood. It's a
33:29
Speaker 1: little time for break, wouldn't you think. But they follow
33:31
Speaker 1: along behind him, shouting, son of David, have mercy on us,
33:35
Speaker 1: Son of David, have mercy on us. And he doesn't
33:37
Speaker 1: answer them. Don't miss that. They're shouting and he's not answering.
33:46
Speaker 1: He moves further and goes to the house where he
33:49
Speaker 1: was headed verse twenty eight. And they went right into
33:52
Speaker 1: the house where he was staying. Jesuits isn't perturbed, he
33:58
Speaker 1: isn't impatient. He simply ask them, do you believe I
34:04
Speaker 1: can make you see? Yes? Lord, they told him, we do.
34:15
Speaker 1: Then he touched their eyes. He touched their eyes and said,
34:20
Speaker 1: because of your faith, it will happen. Look at the verse.
34:29
Speaker 1: Then their eyes were opened and they could see, you know,
34:34
Speaker 1: the first image. They saw the face of Jesus right
34:39
Speaker 1: in front of them. I have a friend who's now
34:43
Speaker 1: retired from his practice of alphalmology, an excellent, excellent physician
34:50
Speaker 1: of the eyes, and he used his practice in a
34:54
Speaker 1: very interesting way to make Christ known. He had been
34:58
Speaker 1: reading in the Bible how a person without Christ is literally,
35:05
Speaker 1: or i should say, spiritually blind. And when a person
35:11
Speaker 1: comes to Christ, it's as if their eyes are opened
35:14
Speaker 1: and they and they see well. Because he did work
35:18
Speaker 1: on eyes that were often the vision was often blocked
35:23
Speaker 1: by growths, often thick, foggy like cataracts, and he, through
35:31
Speaker 1: his training and skill, was able to remove the cataracts
35:36
Speaker 1: and they could see for the first time, many of them.
35:40
Speaker 1: And he had a very interesting idea. You know, how
35:46
Speaker 1: would you go to an eye doctor and they flip
35:48
Speaker 1: a chart down and you read. Usually it's something inane
35:51
Speaker 1: like now's the time for all good men to come
35:53
Speaker 1: to the aid of the country or whatever. His eye
35:57
Speaker 1: chart read. God loves you and has a wonderful plan
36:02
Speaker 1: for your life. That's the first of the four Spiritual
36:06
Speaker 1: Laws that Bill Bright had produced many many years ago.
36:10
Speaker 1: And he said he would have the people. The very
36:13
Speaker 1: first thing they would see when they would test their
36:15
Speaker 1: eyes is this God loves you and has a wonderful
36:20
Speaker 1: plan for your life. Wow. Wow. And he would say,
36:24
Speaker 1: you know you're able to read that, aren't you, And
36:26
Speaker 1: they say, oh, yeah, this is great. It'd be crying
36:29
Speaker 1: and all excited. He would say, let's look at what
36:32
Speaker 1: it says right out of the chute. Think of it.
36:38
Speaker 1: That's evangelism at its best. They're blind now they see,
36:43
Speaker 1: here's the gospel God loves you as a wonderful plan
36:47
Speaker 1: for your life, or whatever you may wish to put there.
36:51
Speaker 1: God so loved the world that he gave his one
36:54
Speaker 1: and only son that whoever believes in him should never
36:58
Speaker 1: perish but have everlasting life. Think of what that would
37:03
Speaker 1: mean to a person who has been blind for who
37:06
Speaker 1: knows how long. By the way, this explains why you
37:11
Speaker 1: can be all exhilarated when you have truth explained to
37:14
Speaker 1: you from the scriptures and the guy sitting next to
37:17
Speaker 1: you is asleep. I mean he's bored to tears or
37:24
Speaker 1: maybe preoccupied. Can't wait till the thing's over, and he
37:28
Speaker 1: gets out and it keeps shaking. His watch thinking gets
37:33
Speaker 1: maybe stopped on him, or something pulls out a calendar.
37:36
Speaker 1: See how long we're gonna go in this sermon? And
37:40
Speaker 1: you can't. You don't want it to end. What's the difference?
37:43
Speaker 1: You have sight? Quite likely, the person sitting next to
37:48
Speaker 1: you does not. Quite likely. The reason you find yourself
37:54
Speaker 1: bored to tears is that none of this is enlightening
37:59
Speaker 1: to you, and you're still blind. In blindness, your life
38:09
Speaker 1: plays tricks on you and you cannot see what is
38:13
Speaker 1: really there. But now eyes are opened and they're able
38:19
Speaker 1: to see. Because he isn't ready to present himself as
38:22
Speaker 1: Messiah to the whole body of people, he says to them,
38:26
Speaker 1: don't tell anyone about this, and my response under my
38:31
Speaker 1: breath is are you kidding? Instead, they went out and
38:34
Speaker 1: spread his fame all over the region. Could you keep
38:38
Speaker 1: it to yourself? You've been blind, and now you can
38:41
Speaker 1: see it. You go along. I'm not telling anybody why,
38:50
Speaker 1: because your life's been changed. He has a deeper reason
38:55
Speaker 1: for his statement to them about not It isn't out
38:58
Speaker 1: of disobedience, it's just out of exhilaration. They can't keep
39:02
Speaker 1: it to themselves. By the way, sharing Christ is like that.
39:08
Speaker 1: It flows out of a life that's been changed, and
39:11
Speaker 1: it is so transformed you can't keep quiet about it.
39:20
Speaker 1: But here's a man who follows who can't speak. Look
39:25
Speaker 1: at verse thirty two. When they left, a demonized man
39:29
Speaker 1: who could not speak was brought to Jesus. Here we
39:32
Speaker 1: are again dealing with demons. Remember that session we had
39:36
Speaker 1: where those pathetic individuals were in the caves of death.
39:41
Speaker 1: They spent their time at the cemetery. They were filled
39:44
Speaker 1: with demons. No chains could hold them, no one could
39:48
Speaker 1: be around them. They were a danger to themselves and others.
39:52
Speaker 1: They cut themselves and they lived in this miserable state.
39:55
Speaker 1: You remember, well, here's a man who is filled with
39:59
Speaker 1: a demon, and the demon has taken his voice, not
40:03
Speaker 1: able to speak, He can't respond, he can't answer questions,
40:09
Speaker 1: he can't state his need. He comes and the man
40:15
Speaker 1: appears before the Lord, and Jesus cast out the demon,
40:22
Speaker 1: and then the man began to speak. What a change.
40:27
Speaker 1: The crowds were amazed. Nothing like this has ever happened
40:31
Speaker 1: in Israel, they exclaimed. You say, right now, who on
40:35
Speaker 1: earth could doubt that this was truly a man of God?
40:40
Speaker 1: The Pharisees could. They weren't there to find reason to believe.
40:45
Speaker 1: They were there to find reasons to cast doubt their negativity.
40:52
Speaker 1: Isn't simply laughter as we read about up in verse
40:56
Speaker 1: twenty four, or the people who had been in the
41:00
Speaker 1: room where the girl had died left laughing at him.
41:04
Speaker 1: This isn't laughter. This is an accusation. He cast out
41:08
Speaker 1: demons because he is empowered by the prince of demons.
41:13
Speaker 1: What audacity to make that statement. He represents the darker powers,
41:21
Speaker 1: since they couldn't explain away the miracles or deny the
41:26
Speaker 1: power that was at work. Yeah, it's supernatural, but it
41:29
Speaker 1: comes from satanic sources. We sit in this room today
41:36
Speaker 1: and we hear these words. It's easy to overlook that
41:42
Speaker 1: we're a part of the crowd. You're here, somewhere on
41:47
Speaker 1: these pages, somewhere in these verses. I asked you earlier,
41:54
Speaker 1: would you have laughed? I ask you now, would you
41:59
Speaker 1: have nodded agreement? That he may have power? But it
42:02
Speaker 1: really is not the power of God. I'm fairly late
42:11
Speaker 1: in that observation. It was back in nineteen forty four
42:14
Speaker 1: that C. S. Lewis wrote a book that came to
42:19
Speaker 1: be known as Mere Christianity nineteen forty four. It was
42:24
Speaker 1: earlier called a Case for Christianity. And in that book
42:29
Speaker 1: there appears a paragraph that is perhaps among the most
42:33
Speaker 1: often quoted from Lewis, the university philosopher who was surprised
42:41
Speaker 1: by joy and came to Christ in his own life.
42:45
Speaker 1: He writes this, I'm trying here to prevent anyone from
42:50
Speaker 1: saying the really silly thing that people often say about him,
42:56
Speaker 1: meaning Jesus. They say, I'm ready to accept Jesus as
43:00
Speaker 1: a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim
43:03
Speaker 1: to be God. That's the one thing Lewis says that
43:09
Speaker 1: we mustn't say. A man who was merely a man
43:14
Speaker 1: and said the sort of things Jesus said, wouldn't be
43:17
Speaker 1: a great moral teacher. He'd either be a lunatic on
43:25
Speaker 1: a level with a man who says he's a poached egg,
43:29
Speaker 1: or else he'd be the devil of hell. You must
43:33
Speaker 1: make your choice. Those are my words to all of
43:37
Speaker 1: us today. You must make your choice. Either the man
43:42
Speaker 1: was and is the son of God, or he's a
43:47
Speaker 1: madman or something worse. You can shut him up as
43:51
Speaker 1: a fool, or spit at him as a demon, or
43:56
Speaker 1: you can follow at his feet and call him Lord
44:00
Speaker 1: and God. But don't come with any patronizing nonsense about
44:07
Speaker 1: his being a great human teacher. He hasn't left that
44:12
Speaker 1: open to us. He didn't intend to. I'm not asking
44:20
Speaker 1: you today simply to be impressed with a man who
44:23
Speaker 1: lived and died and whose name is now known among
44:29
Speaker 1: multiple millions around the world. Fine man, martyr for a cause,
44:39
Speaker 1: Good teacher. Those are silly answers. There's shallow answers. Great
44:48
Speaker 1: moral teachers would never say what he said. In fact,
44:55
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, many years after mere Christianity, Kent
45:03
Speaker 1: Hughes wrote, and then later one as more recent as
45:10
Speaker 1: Eric Metaxas, in his book on Miracles, wrote this. C. S.
45:18
Speaker 1: Lewis rather famously said that when it came to deciding
45:22
Speaker 1: who Jesus Christ was, we really only had three choices. First,
45:29
Speaker 1: we could say he was a liar, that all the
45:33
Speaker 1: things he said were simply lies. Second, we could say
45:37
Speaker 1: he was not a liar but a lunatic, so he
45:41
Speaker 1: couldn't be held responsible for saying the things he said.
45:45
Speaker 1: And third we could say he was actually who he
45:49
Speaker 1: said he was, the Lord of heaven and Earth. Lewis
45:53
Speaker 1: said there were no other options beside the three lord, liar, lunatic,
46:00
Speaker 1: because Jesus hadn't left us any other options. He continues
46:05
Speaker 1: to regard Christ as a wonderful moral teacher is not
46:09
Speaker 1: possible because he said so many things that a sane
46:12
Speaker 1: and wonderful moral teacher would never say, such as when
46:17
Speaker 1: he hursed a fig tree or raised people from the dead,
46:24
Speaker 1: or said that he was the promised messiah of the world,
46:28
Speaker 1: or when he forgave sin and healed the blind, to
46:32
Speaker 1: name a few examples. Socrates didn't do any of those things,
46:37
Speaker 1: or claimed to do any of those things, but if
46:41
Speaker 1: he had claimed to, we would rightly say he was
46:45
Speaker 1: an out and out liar or a fraud or simply
46:50
Speaker 1: an uncompassmentus. And so it must be with Jesus. We
46:57
Speaker 1: can hardly be someone. He can hardly be someone who
47:00
Speaker 1: pronounces deeply sane and wise things on the one hand,
47:05
Speaker 1: and a madman or deceiver on the other. We are
47:10
Speaker 1: forced to choose. Louis here holds our feet to the
47:18
Speaker 1: logical fire, good words. Eric Metaxas, let me have you
47:28
Speaker 1: bow your heads. Please, please close your eyes and sit
47:32
Speaker 1: quietly there in the darkness provided by your eyelids and
47:42
Speaker 1: the quietness of this room. What is your opinion of
47:52
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. No, no, no, no, not your parents, not what
48:00
Speaker 1: your preacher believes. I'm not talking about any of that. You,
48:09
Speaker 1: who have just set through a rather a brief and
48:14
Speaker 1: simple narrative of a non stop day of miracles. You're
48:24
Speaker 1: left with a choice. God didn't give us his words
48:29
Speaker 1: simply to entertain us or satisfy idle curiosity. He recorded
48:37
Speaker 1: these events so that we might have our lives changed.
48:45
Speaker 1: My belief in the one the officer from the synagogue
48:49
Speaker 1: believed in, or the crowd around the girl who stood
48:55
Speaker 1: up now alive, or the two blind men who now
48:59
Speaker 1: see or the demonized man who now speaks, where are
49:07
Speaker 1: you in that story? The Lord, our God stands before
49:17
Speaker 1: us with his arms open, saying, come to me. Come
49:22
Speaker 1: to me as you are. Come in faith. Believe that
49:28
Speaker 1: my son died that you might have life now and eternally,
49:35
Speaker 1: and trust Him now. Believe in Him now. You are
49:47
Speaker 1: no closer to God than you were when you came in,
49:49
Speaker 1: if you came without Christ, if you have not turned
49:54
Speaker 1: your life over to Him. You've done a few religious things,
50:03
Speaker 1: you've sung songs, and you've been a part of a
50:06
Speaker 1: time of prayer and teaching. But you're no different until
50:12
Speaker 1: you turn your life over to Him, until you trust
50:17
Speaker 1: him to forgive your sins, to give you a whole
50:25
Speaker 1: new slate, a whole new beginning. If anyone is in Christ,
50:33
Speaker 1: he is a new creation. The old things are passed away,
50:38
Speaker 1: All things are new. We've heard of that new piece
50:44
Speaker 1: of cloth and the new wine. I offer to you,
50:50
Speaker 1: the whole new concept of faith. Trust Him with your
50:57
Speaker 1: heart right now. Dear Father, we are so grateful that
51:08
Speaker 1: you cared enough about us when you were revealing your
51:12
Speaker 1: word that you included in it this narrative designed to
51:19
Speaker 1: capture our attention and to arouse our interest to convict us.
51:30
Speaker 1: We've lived so many of our years looking in the
51:35
Speaker 1: wrong direction, trying to find answers and a reason to
51:42
Speaker 1: go on from erroneous sources. We now realize it is Christ,
51:50
Speaker 1: and Christ alone, in whom we have eternal life, forgiveness,
51:57
Speaker 1: and the hope of eternity. I pray that you would
52:03
Speaker 1: give no rest and no relief to those who do
52:08
Speaker 1: not know you. Turn their hearts over to you. May
52:15
Speaker 1: sleep flee from them. May anxiety be their constant companion.
52:22
Speaker 1: May there be restlessness until they find hope and rest
52:30
Speaker 1: in You, Dear Father, through Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
52:38
Speaker 1: We pray everyone said Amen.
52:48
Speaker 2: The preceding message, A NonStop Day of Miracles, was copyrighted
52:53
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty one, and the sound
52:56
Speaker 2: recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty one by Charles R.
53:00
Speaker 2: Swind All Ink. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of
53:04
Speaker 2: copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.